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Something seemed amiss when police officer Oscar Lizarraga arrived at the Conquistador Apartments.

Maria Ester Singh hadn’t yet paid that month’s rent, and the apartment manager said that was unusual. Singh’s daughter, who lives outside Houston, hadn’t heard from her since April. She asked a cousin in Brownsville to check in on her. Now it was May 8, and no one answered a knock at the door of unit 1012, which was latched from the inside.

Joaquin Galvan, 82, Maria Trinidad Galvan, 78, and Singh, 60, lived in the apartment complex on Billy Mitchell Boulevard with three small dogs. Singh was the personal care attendant for Joaquin, her father, and Maria Trinidad, her aunt.

Lizarraga checked the windows and doors for signs of forced entry. Finding none, he pried the door open. He saw a body slumped on the floor. He asked Maria’s cousin and the apartment manager to wait outside.

The three family members had been dead for days. A pathologist attributed the deaths to complications of diab... Read more

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